116 
Farm Buildings. 
the latter I have at present nothing to do. Their 
discussion may be deferred to a more fitting 
season of relaxation and amusement. Utility 
js my present object. Of useful erections there 
are two kinds ; the dwelling, for the accommo¬ 
dation of the farmer himself, his tenants, or la¬ 
borers; and the outbuildings, for the storage 
of farm crops, tools, machinery, accommodation 
of the cattle, and other stock, &c, &c. And as 
these latter are of the greatest importance with 
all good farmers, after the family is comfortably 
housed, I shall first treat of their structure, and 
as incidental thereto, and to their uses, make 
some remarks on the proper care of stock in 
general. 
In the outset, it is as well to remark that in 
America where the basis of our agriculture is 
directly the reverse of what it is in the coun¬ 
tries of Europe. There land being dear and 
labor cheap, while here land is cheap and labor 
dear, the least possible sum that can be expended 
in the manual labor of the farm consistent with 
a productive result , is, or should be the main 
study of the successful farmer. The American 
farmer who annually pays larger labor bills 
grows poor, while the European who does not 
expend much labor on a comparatively small 
farm usually grows poor also; and it should 
therefore be the aim of the American to make 
all his permanent expenditures which are to 
constitute the dead capital of his farm with an 
eye not only to cheapness in construction, but 
to the saving of labor in its use. No general 
rule of building can be laid down for a country 
so diversified in climate and material as in 
North America: but main hints and outlines 
may be given to govern the ordinary construc¬ 
tion of outbuildings for thrifty husbandmen. 
As a general proposition, however, the build¬ 
ings should be of wood, well framed, and co¬ 
vered with boards and shingles, and well set 
up from the ground, either on a stone walled 
cellar, or underpinning ; usually the latter, for 
but few barns or outbuildings require much 
cellar room. But every building should be 
well set up from the ground, and on an inde¬ 
structible foundation, that being truly, as well 
as literally the basis of all real economy in this 
department. As to their location, that'depends 
so much on circumstances ; the shape, locality, 
the purposes to which the farm is devoted, and 
many minor considerations, that the good sense 
and discretion of the proprietor must decide 
that question. Were I to locate my buildings 
on the farm, proximity to the road would have 
little influence on my choice. Access to good 
water, a central position on the farm, by which 
every part of it might be easily reached in getting 
in the crops and in superintending the labor, 
would be the main object; whle the passing 
on the highways and the neighborhood gossip 
would be the last requisites I should consult. 
Your true Southerner, and Pennsylvanian, and 
South Western farmer nestles down simply in a 
convenient spot on his estate; let the travelled 
highway go where it may, and there he awaits 
the call of the public, attending solely to his 
own domestic affairs, content to see what comes 
upon him, hieing out from his domicil when 
occasion demands it ; while your inquiring 
Yankee as universally plants himself on the 
main road, determined to see every thing as it 
passes, and dreading nothing so much as to be 
shut out from the gaze of the passer by, and 
not to know as it occurs, every thing of public 
import as well as of private rumor. I once 
knew a characteristic, yet perhaps rather ex¬ 
treme instance of this propensity to building 
every thing on the highway, in a worthy old 
gentleman, long since deceased, in New Eng¬ 
land. He was a considerable farmer, but a 
great talker and story teller ; and in construct¬ 
ing his buildings set his house, woodhouse, &c. 
on one side of a road not over forty feet wide, 
and on the very side of it too; while his bam, 
sheds, corn-house, and even his well, barn-yard, 
&c. were directly opposite, and on the exact 
line of the road also. True, his farm lay on 
both sides of it, but not in equal proportions— 
this to be sure was a mighty inconvenient me¬ 
thod of placing his buildings, having to cross 
the road, often a muddy one, for every bucket 
of water; but it enabled the family to see every 
body that passed, and was, as the old gentleman 
one time remarked to me, “ handy to hear the 
news and know what was going on in the 
world.” So absorbing had this propensity be¬ 
come in his old age that he had a shaving horse 
under a great buttonwood tree on the road-side 
near his house for several years before he died, 
where in warm weather he could sit and shave 
shingles a great part of the day, and have a 
friendly gossip with almost every traveller who 
came along and would loiter time enough to 
hear a story from the old gentleman. Ah, well! 
he was an excellent man; and although he 
had his buildings altogether too near the road, 
I wish that every body was as good and as vir¬ 
tuous as he. There were no rail roads in 
those days, and people were not wont to hurry 
through the world on their travels in such 
chain-shot expedition as they now do, going 
over more ground than they even see, and with 
a rapidity that seems like the shadowy remem¬ 
brance of a dream. 
But the yankee has some contrivances to coun¬ 
terbalance his roadside propensities satisfactory 
to himself, no doubt; and as I do not propose to 
reform the inherent or conventional habits of 
the people, I have only to do with the structure 
